Kindergarten

Forms

Kindergarten m (genitive Kindergartens, plural Kindergärten)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from German Kind (“child”) + Garten (“garden”), with the plural of the first noun as its first part.^[1][2] The educator Friedrich Fröbel coined it in 1840 for his school for small children.^[3][4][2] The name is a metaphor: a place where children can grow in a natural way, not a garden in the literal sense.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fröbel used the word in 1840 for his institution for children below school age, a first educational establishment.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Before Fröbel, Jean Paul had used Kindergarten figuratively in Titan for the island where his hero spent his childhood, “the home of one's childhood”.^[6] After the pattern of Fröbel's word, Kinderhort was formed in 1871 for a day centre for schoolchildren, today mostly shortened to Hort.^[3]

The word spread abroad with Fröbel's method.^[1][7] English borrowed it as kindergarten in 1852,^[5][7] and many languages translated it part by part: French jardin d'enfants, Danish børnehave, Dutch kindertuin and Japanese 幼稚園 (yōchien) are calques of the German word.^[1] Colloquially, Kindergarten also stands for childish, petty squabbling.^[1]

Timeline

• 1840 – Friedrich Fröbel coins Kindergarten for his school for small children.^[3][4]
• 1852 – English borrows the word as kindergarten.^[5][7]
• 1871 – Kinderhort is formed after the model of Kindergarten.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kindergarten or nursery school: a public institution that looks after children below school age and supports their development: Unsere Tochter geht seit dem Sommer in den Kindergarten.^[4][1]
2. (colloquial, derogatory) Childish antics, petty squabbling: Hört auf zu streiten, das ist ja der reinste Kindergarten.^[1][4]

Related words

• Kind
• Garten
• Kinderhort
• English kindergarten

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 737
7. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de